London — Amanda Knox, who made headlines almost two decades ago when she was convicted, but later acquitted, of the murder of her British roommate in Italy, is at the center of a new controversy.
Knox is now a stand-up comedian, and not everyone is happy about it. The family of her murdered former housemate, Meredith Kercher, calls her show insensitive and exploitative.
“My friends and family are actually really nervous for me despite my spotless record in the court of public opinion,” Knox says in her act.
Her comedy routine, “Cartwheel,” is now playing at Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Nearly two decades ago, a court in Italy convicted her and her now-former boyfriend of killing her roommate, 21-year-old Kercher.
Knox served four years in an Italian prison but was later acquitted on flawed DNA forensics.
Since then, she’s written two books about her imprisonment and served as an executive producer on a Hulu biography, “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.”
“To this day, some people say, ‘She’s innocent, but she sure acted guilty,'” Knox says in her act.
Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images for ABA
Kercher’s sister, Stephanie, has backed a signature-collection campaign to shut down Knox’s comedy show.
“What I would say (to Knox) is to think about the family here, think about her friends and, to turn the tables, if it was your sister that this had happened to, because I know you have a sister as well, how would you feel?” Stephanie Kercher told CBS News’ partner network, BBC News.
Knox said in a statement posted to social media that the campaign has “many false assumptions and completely mischaracterizes the show.”
“I’m not the first person to invent using comedy to talk about traumatic and difficult material,” Knox told BBC News. “I think that, again, I would hope that people will honestly engage with my work and recognize, like, the deep heart and sensitivity that I bring to it as I tell a very personal story through a comedic lens.”
Knox even said she thinks Meredith Kercher would find her act funny.
“Meredith absolutely wouldn’t find these topics of, you know, any comedy value,” Stephanie Kercher told BBC News.
Kercher’s family is now urging British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to intervene, saying Knox’s comedy show sets a precedent for anyone else to use their past as an opportunity that could cause more pain.